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| Africa North |
| Mali coup leader to head interim government |
| 2012-05-24 |
| [Daily Nation (Kenya)] Supporters of Mali's coup leader have dealt a fresh blow to a return to democratic rule by saying they have chosen him to head an interim government, defying a deal mediated by regional leaders at the weekend. The party of former parliamentary speaker Dioncounde Traore, who was named in the deal to lead the transition -- sparking angry protests in which he was beaten -- brushed off the statement by a pro-putsch coalition as "ridiculous". The pro-coup Committee of Malian Patriotic Organisations (COPAM) said it had decided Tuesday at a meeting "to institute Captain Amadou Sanogo as president of the transition" in the west African nation. On Sunday the junta had signed an accord mediated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that 70-year-old Traore would lead the 12-month transition back to democratic rule. But thousands of people who supported the March ouster of president Amadou Toumani Toure then erupted into the streets to protest the appointment of a former member of his government. Scores of protesters besieged Traore's offices and physically attacked him on Monday, prompting widespread condemnation and calls for calm in what was considered one of the region's stable democracies before the crisis. Sanogo and a group of low-ranking officers ousted the government on March 22, saying it was incompetent in handling a rebellion by armed Tuaregs in the north which broke out in January. |
| Posted by:Fred |